Dottie’s was busy two days later as Peyton made her way to the table where Dan was already seated.

“Hey,” she greeted.

Her father gave her a sincere smile. “Hi.”

She took a breath. She was glad she’d decided to meet him for lunch. She was. This would be great.

“Um, so, I can’t stay,” Dan said, as she started to slide into the booth.

Peyton froze halfway across the bench and stared at him. Okay, so it wouldn’t be great. Because it wasn’t going to happen. Then she shook her head and sighed, moving the rest of the way into the booth. “I’m shocked,” she said dryly.

“Your mom needs me to come pick her up.”

Peyton nodded. “It’s been four days.”

“Yeah.”

“Only four days,” she added. Then wondered why she bothered.

“She’s unhappy,” Dan said with a shrug.

“And you’re lonely.”

Dan was the one to sigh this time. “Yeah.”

A prickle of guilt niggled at Peyton’s mind. She could have seen him before this. She could have taken dinner over last night, or the night before. But she’d been spending time with Scott. And she hadn’t really wanted to have lunch with her dad.

“Can we just…talk?” she asked Dan. “Just for a minute?”

She wasn’t sure where that had come from. She and Dan hadn’t sat and talked for a really long time. Or maybe ever. But she’d been doing a lot of talking lately and it wasn’t so bad.

Dan nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Peyton knew that Dan wouldn’t give her much more than the few minutes, so she leaned her forearms onto the tabletop and jumped right in. “Don’t you think the rehab would be good for her?”

Dan didn’t look surprised by the topic, but he didn’t look thrilled with it either. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “Seems like it should be.”

Peyton nodded. “Yes. It really does.”

“But I don’t know how effective it can be if she’s miserable and doesn’t want to be there.”

“It’s not unusual for people to not like doing things that are good for them,” Peyton pointed out. She really hated running. Her friend Tess had tried to get her into it, but Peyton hated it. Even though she knew it was good for her. Of course, she hadn’t stuck with it. Or the gluten-free thing she’d tried. Or cutting back on her drinking. Or getting a degree before now. All of which also would have been good for her. But she hadn’t liked any of it. Peyton shook all of those thoughts off. This was about Jo. And Dan.

Dan slumped slightly in his seat. “I know. But I can’t handle it when she’s unhappy.”

Peyton frowned and leaned in. “What is that about?”

He frowned back. “She’s my wife. I love her.”

Peyton shook her head. “No, this is more than that. You know rehab would be good for her. That she could be even happier when it’s over. But you don’t encourage it. You don’t push her. You show up the second she’s not having a good time. Is it really because you miss her that much? You really can’t be alone, even if it’s for her own good?”

She had never gone into this with her father. Peyton hadn’t been surprised even the first time Jo had quit rehab. Jo had gone on and off of her meds, started and stopped therapy, started and stopped support groups, all of Peyton’s life. She’d tried everything from meditation to adopting pets to trying Hope’s essential oils. She’d never stuck with anything. And Dan had never pushed. He’d never made her do anything that was difficult or that made her even a little unhappy.

Again, Peyton thought about all the things she’d started and quit in the past, and then shook it off. She could think about all of that later. Maybe.

Dan was tracing his finger up and down the butter knife by his hand. It almost killed her, but Peyton stayed quiet, hoping that he would answer her. And that when it came, the answer would make sense. Because her parents and their craziness—some of it literal—had been a cloud she couldn’t shake. She would love some actual insight into the whole thing. She would also love to think that Dan had some actual insight.

Finally, he looked up. “That woman isn’t easy,” he said. “She’s got a lot of problems. Some that she can’t help, some she can. And I don’t think very many people would have stuck around for her. But I make her happy. And I made her a promise, to always be there. In a world where everything seems to be working against happiness and people sticking around and keeping promises, that’s something that’s made me proud for a long time.”

Peyton felt like she was holding her breath. That was kind of like what she and Scott had talked about the night on the hill—the fact that there was so much fighting against the happiness and that it was really important to do things to keep it going.

Without overthinking it, she reached over and covered her dad’s hand. “You've given up so much, though. Are you happy?”

Dan was clearly surprised by Peyton’s touch. He lifted his eyes to hers. “Yeah, I have given things up. That’s why it’s important that I’m here for her. She needs me.”

Something in his voice made her pause. She looked closer. He looked…she wasn't sure. But not sad or upset.  He looked determined.

“So you don't want it to be different? You don’t want her to get help and get better?”

He took a deep breath. “Well, that’s not going to happen. So that makes my decision to stay matter.”

Peyton frowned, thinking about what he’d said. “Your decision to stay? You mean, instead of leaving Sapphire Falls with Melody?”

Melody was Hope’s mother. She’d spent a summer in Sapphire Falls and had met and had a fling with Dan. When she was ready to leave at the end of the summer, he’d chosen to stay in Sapphire Falls. With Jo. He hadn’t known he had a daughter with Melody until Melody passed away and Hope came looking for him.

Dan finally nodded. “Yeah.”

“You loved her, didn’t you?” Peyton asked.

“I did,” he admitted. “But she didn’t need me. Jo did. So I stayed.”

“And if Jo stops needing you, then all of that sacrifice was for nothing,” Peyton said, putting the pieces together as she spoke.

Dan didn’t confirm that. But he didn’t really have to.

“You don’t want Jo to get better,” Peyton said quietly, stunned. “You want her to need you.”

He shrugged. “She can’t get totally better, Peyton.”

“And that’s okay with you.”

“We’re making it work,” Dan said.

Except that they really weren’t. Jo was dependent, Dan was an enabler, and their daughter had been on her own almost from the beginning.

Peyton pulled her hand back. “I guess I never realized…that this really is what you want,” she said.

“It’s my life,” Dan said. “I’ve done my best. That’s really all anyone can ask, you know?”

Peyton swallowed hard. She was not going to point out all of the things he hadn’t done well, all of the ways she could name that he’d failed, the mistakes. Because maybe, just maybe, he really had done his best.

She took a second to consider that. She supposed it was possible that Dan and Jo just weren’t cut out to be parents, and that they’d done the best they could. And maybe it didn’t matter anymore. They were happy. At least, by their own definition. Who was she to tell them that was wrong? She knew that there should be more, could be more, and maybe that was all that mattered.

“I need to go,” he said.

She nodded. “I know.”

Dan slid out of the booth and stood. Then he shocked her—and maybe himself a little as well—by leaning over and kissing the top of her head.

Before she’d really recovered, he was across the diner and out the door.

* * *

They’d made it past two weeks.

Scott looked at the date he’d just written on the check to the electric company, then up at the woman sitting next to him at the kitchen table working on her computer.

He was paying bills and she was studying. They’d finished dinner about an hour ago, done the dishes, and were now settled at the table. If tonight went according to the routine they’d already established, they would be here for a couple of hours, then head to the couch for some TV time, before going to bed, making love, and sleeping all night wrapped up together.

They had a routine. Full of some of the most normal, everyday stuff that two people could do together.

And he was suddenly filled with the urge to give a loud hell yeah.

Instead, he reached over and ran a hand over her hair.

She looked up and gave him a little smile that made his heart kick in his chest.

He wanted this for the rest of his life. He opened his mouth, wondering even as he did it, if it was the right time. It was fast. Kind of. He wasn’t going to propose, exactly, but he was going to ask her to stay. Like this. Forever.

So, okay, that would be sort of like a proposal.

But he didn’t want to spook her. He didn’t want to do anything that would rock this boat. This perfectly normal, routine, could-be-boring-but-it-wasn’t boat.

“Pey—”

Just then his phone rang. And he was split between frustration at being interrupted, and relief at being interrupted. He leaned in, kissed her quickly on the mouth, then pulled his phone out.

“Hansen.”

“North Dakota. You and me. It’s all set up.”

It was Lance. Shit.

Scott glanced at Peyton. “Um, I haven’t set things up here.”

“Dammit, Hansen,” Lance said. “Come on.”

Scott sighed. “Thought we were having a meeting first.”

“Yeah, tomorrow. And your ass better be there. We head out the next day.”

“The next day?” Scott repeated.

“What? You need to get a mani-pedi before we go? We don’t have time to waste here,” Lance said.

“It’s just…not a good time.” Scott saw Peyton frown slightly.

“Yeah, well, it’s not really a good time for those girls that are missing either.”

Scott scowled at the tabletop. “That was low.”

“I don’t fucking care. I want you on this with me.”

Scott blew out a breath. “I appreciate that. I just can’t really…drop things right now.”

“So don’t drop them. Put them on hold. For fuck’s sake, Hansen, I can’t believe I’m even having to ask more than once.”

Scott felt a squeeze on his hand and looked up into Peyton’s eyes.

“You okay?” she asked quietly.

He wasn’t.

He wanted to go to North Dakota. He needed to go. But things here were just getting solid. How could he pick up and leave Peyton when he was just now able to show her how good and steady this was? That was what Peyton had never had…a home that was good and steady. Where she could count on the people and the routine to be the same, no matter what else happened. She’d had to leave her childhood home to find the good things that made her feel better. He wanted those good things she needed to be inside these four walls.

He had to make a decision here though. “I’ll call you right back,” he told Lance. Then he disconnected before the other man could give him any more grief.

“What’s going on?” Peyton looked legitimately concerned.

“It’s…the task force,” Scott told her. Might as well be honest about it. Damn, why couldn’t this be two or three months from now? Or six? Or twelve? He wanted things stable here before he left to make something—someone—else his priority. Even temporarily.

“They need you?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Why did you tell him this wasn’t a good time?” she asked. “Is your leg bothering you too much?”

“My leg’s not an issue,” he said. There’d be no kicking down doors or running down back alleys. At least, not at first.

“So then you have to go.”

“The op is in North Dakota,” he said. “And I’ll be gone two weeks, minimum. Maybe more. And totally cut off, at least for part of it. I don’t know when I’ll be able to call or even text.”

“Oh.” That seemed to make her think. She straightened after a moment. “Well, you still have to go. If that’s where they need you, that’s where you have to go.”

“I told him I had to think about it.”

“What’s to think about?”

Okay, fine. Scott leaned in, pinning her with a direct gaze. “You and me. And all of this.”

“All of this?”

“Us being together. We’re just getting started,” he told her.

She didn’t laugh, but she did smile. Sweetly. And not even a little sarcastically. “We started a long time ago, Scott.”

“And it took me a hell of a time to get you to this point,” he said. “And I don’t know if the time we’ve had is enough to keep things solid.”

She leaned in too. “Well, where am I going to go? You’ve ruined me for all other men. You’ve got that new showerhead that I love. You make the best homemade pizza I’ve ever had. You go get the bad guys and save the day, then come home. I’ll be here.”

Her words rocked through him. Yeah, the ones about ruining her for other men were good. He liked those. A lot. But it was the I’ll be here that made his heart feel like it might pound right out of his chest. He’d said that to her a hundred times. But she’d never said it to him.

She was here. With him. She was good. Happy. Content. And Sapphire Falls was good. It was the safe, happy, peaceful place he wanted, no needed, it to be.

That was all he’d ever really wanted. Home. And her.

Everything was different now than the last time he’d been on an extended op. He could go to North Dakota, do the work, make it really matter, and then, after all the dirt and darkness, he could come home. To Sapphire Falls and to Peyton.

He reached out and snagged her by the wrist, pulling her into his lap. “What if you need me?” he asked, putting his nose into her hair and breathing deep.

She wrapped an arm around his neck and snuggled close. “Well, I’m not going to lie and tell you my vibrator is going to stay in the drawer,” she said.

“Not what I mean.”

“Why would I ne—” She stopped and pulled back to look at him. “Wait a second, you mean, like a ride home from a party or bail money?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Anything.”

“I did ninety percent of the shit I did so I could have your attention,” she said with a small frown. “You know that.”

Yeah, he did. It didn’t matter. He wanted to be the one she could call no matter what. And that couldn’t happen if he was in North Dakota for God knew how long. “Not when you were in Vegas,” he said.

“I’m not planning another trip to Vegas.”

“You didn’t plan that trip to Vegas.” That had been a last minute, hey-I’ve-got-an-idea Peyton move.

She sighed. “Okay, I promise not to go to Vegas.”

“That was hardly the first or last time you needed me, Trouble.”

She suddenly pushed back off of his lap and frowned down at him. “Okay. But I don’t understand what that has to do with North Dakota. I’m not going to be drinking and partying while you’re gone. Is that what you want me to say?”

He sighed. “I just want to be around. In case.”

Her eyes widened. “In case of emergency,” she said, almost to herself. She frowned. “Like in my phone,” she said, referring to putting his number in under ICE on her phone so he’d be the first call anyone made if she was in trouble.

“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.

“You really get off on that.”

“On being someone you can count on? Yeah. You matter to me, Peyton.”

“Well, thank you. And I know that,” she said. “But you do realize that I’m not going to start questioning that just because you’re not around to give me a ride home sometime.”

Scott clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax. He wanted her to be okay. Better than okay. He needed her to be good, safe, healthy and happy. And if he wanted something done right—like Peyton protected and cared for—then he had to do it himself. No one else had ever done it very fucking well. “It matters to me to be there for you.”

“You can’t come running every time I have a hangnail, Scott.”

“I wish I could,” he shot back. “That I could fix.” Then he froze. Fuck, why had he said that?

She seemed stunned too. “My stuff does seem pretty easy to fix, doesn’t it?” she said after a moment.

“That’s not what—”

She held up a hand. “No, seriously.” She seemed to be thinking as she spoke. “You worked on a task force where, no matter how many people you saved and how many bad guys you put away, there was always more. You never really felt like you completely fixed anything. And then you came to Sapphire Falls. Where you could fix the noise complaints and the speeding and the littering. And you found me—a girl you could save. Because what I needed was someone who would show up, over and over, no matter what I did wrong or how I screwed up.”

“Peyton, that is not—”

“No, hang on,” she said. “This is really it, Scott. I needed you. And I let you think I needed you even more than I did because I knew that’s what you needed. You needed to clean out gutters and give rides home and give self-defense lessons to someone because you needed to feel like you were actually making things better for someone.”

Jesus. His heart was aching as he watched her process everything going through her head. But he didn’t try to stop her again. Because she was kind of right.

“Derek said that he didn’t think you liked me just because I was the girl in town who was the most trouble,” she said. “But that’s part of it, isn’t it?”

“You talked to Derek about this?”

She nodded. “I needed to know if I was the only one who saw that you needed more than Sapphire Falls.”

“I don’t,” he said firmly. “Everything I need and want is right here.”

“Am I the reason you haven’t been doing as much work with the task force?” she asked. “Have you been sticking around Sapphire Falls because of me and how much I get into trouble? And because I was giving you problems to fix?”

“I came back to Sapphire Falls because I was burned out,” he said. “I told you that.”

“Yes.” She crossed her arms. “But you didn’t tell me what’s kept you here after you got over the burnout.”

“Maybe I’m not over it.”

“You are. You want to go to North Dakota. I know you do. I know the work is hard, but the other night when we were talking about it, I could see how much it means to you.”

He didn’t answer that.

“So if you’re over the burnout, why aren’t you going back?”

“I like it here. I want to take care of Sapphire Falls.”

“Okay. But we don’t need you twenty-four-seven three-sixty-five, Scott. This is Sapphire Falls. You can go and do the other stuff too.”

“You need me twenty-four-seven three-sixty-five,” he finally said. “You don’t have anyone else like that in your life. That’s me. That’s my job.”

She frowned harder.

“Hell, I fell in love with you, Peyton. I want to be here. With you. Is that really so bad?”

She just looked at him for a long moment. But finally she nodded. “Yeah, that is so bad.”

“What?”

“Well, first of all, I don’t love that this is the way you tell me you love me.”

He grimaced. Yeah, okay.

“And second of all, and maybe more importantly, I don’t love hearing that you loving me is keeping you from doing other things you’re passionate about. Things that other people need you to do. You can’t stay here in Sapphire Falls all the time because you’re afraid to leave me. You can’t do something that’s only partially fulfilling because I don’t have my shit together.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“But it’s true,” she said. “You’ve been staying here, not going on longer operations, because you’re afraid that at some point I might need somebody and you’re worried that no one else will be there for me.”

He sighed. “Yeah. Kind of.”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Scott sat, watching her, trying to read her expression. Damn, this had gotten fucked-up fast. He knew it sounded pathetic that he’d wanted to stay close to take care of her. But he’d promised to be there for her. Any time. He couldn’t fulfill that promise if he was hundreds of miles away undercover and not answering his phone.

“I can’t be the reason that you’re not doing everything you can and want to do,” she finally told him. “I’ll admit that I’m part of this problem. I watched my mom need my dad and my dad respond to that. It seemed to make him happy. So, I did the same things, trying to get his attention. It didn’t really work with him. But it worked on you. And I loved having your attention so I didn’t change it. But, I don’t want to be like my mom and dad. My dad is there because she needs him. Not because he wants to be, but because he feels obligated. I don’t want that from you. I want you with me because you choose to be. Not because you feel like you can’t leave me and you feel responsible. I don’t want to be nothing but troub—trouble, for you.”

She stuttered over the word and Scott felt like his chest was cracking in two. “Peyton, I never meant that like that.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. Then she blinked hard and said, “I know.”

“I want to be with you, Peyton. Jesus, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.” He could feel the need to do something coiling in his gut, but he had no fucking idea what to do. Besides lay his heart on the line.

“Then go to North Dakota.”

He sucked in a breath. Why did he feel like if he left, he’d lose this? Her?

She wet her lips and then said, “And I’m going back to my house.”

Scott felt his eyebrows slam together. “No.”

“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “You can be my ICE, but clogged gutters and hangnails are not emergencies.”

“Fine,” he blew out a breath. “But stay and…not need me here.”

She shook her head. “I need to spend some time alone.”

“No you don’t. It’s—”

“We’ve done the two weeks,” she interrupted. “We said we’d do this thing where I try to seduce you and you show me what a real relationship is like for two weeks.”

He gritted his teeth. They had said that. “You don’t have to leave.”

“I do. We made an agreement. Now we need to see where we want to go next.”

“I know exactly where I want to go next,” he practically growled. “I want you. Here. With me. For good.”

Her expression softened for a moment, and he could see in her eyes that she wanted to give in. But she stiffened her spine and said, “We’ll talk when you get back.”

Fuck.

He would always do two things—whatever made Peyton happy and whatever he said he would do. They had said two weeks. That had been the testing period. So he had to let her go. At least temporarily.

That need to do something coiled tighter in his gut. He wanted to keep her here, to make her stay, to bind her to him somehow. What if she realized she really didn’t need him? What if there were no more emergencies? What if there was nothing for him to save her from? Would she want him then?

“What if I don’t go?” he asked stubbornly. “You move back to your place and we take some time to think about what we want. But I stay here while we do it?”

“Those girls need you, Scott. I know it kills you a little that you can’t save them all in one fell swoop, but every single one you do save is worth it.”

His heart squeezed. Dammit.

“And as a girl who you’ve fixed a lot of things for, let me tell you, seeing you come through the door, all big and bad and determined to right every wrong, is something those girls deserve to see.”

Love and need and desire pulsed through him with her words. She believed in his work. She could help him see the good in the midst of the horrible crap. And she had to be here when he got home. She had to be. Coming home to her was what would hold him together for the next few weeks.

He reached out and circled her wrist with his fingers, pulling her close, just needing to feel her. She stepped between his knees and reached up and ran her hand over his hair, like he so often did to her.

It was that action that broke the final wall that was holding back the completely, almost irrationally, possessive part of him that needed to make her his before he left.

He came to his feet, grasped her hips and lifted her up onto the table in one fluid movement. He stripped her T-shirt over her head and lowered his mouth to take hers in a hot, deep kiss.

As his tongue stroked firmly, possessively along hers, he undid her bra, tossing it to the floor, and cupped her breasts, plucking and teasing the nipples until she was moaning into his mouth and wiggling on the tabletop.

He released her lips only so he could say firmly, “Take your pants off.”

“What are you doing?” she asked, as he reached past her to set her computer on the chair and tossing his bills and paperwork to the floor. “I thought we were kind of breaking up.”

The fuck if they were. “I’m ruining you for your vibrator too,” he told her. He kissed her again, laying her back on the table. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her leggings, pulling them and her panties down her legs and dropping them on the floor.

With her totally naked and laid out on the table, he straightened and reached for the bottle of maple syrup they hadn’t put away that morning.

Her eyes widened as he popped the lid. His gaze locked on hers, he tipped the bottle, drizzling the amber liquid over her stomach and then lower. She gasped as the syrup slid between her legs. Scott set the bottle to the side, parted her knees, and lowered his head, licking and sucking. She came before he’d even gotten it all lapped up, but he kept going, and after her second orgasm, finally pulled her ass to the edge of the table.

He dug a condom from his pocket and lowered his fly. He handed the foil packet to her. Without a word, she tore it open and reached for him. He gritted his teeth as she stroked him a few times before rolling the protection on.

“Even if this is all you ever need me for again,” he said. “I will give you this. Whenever you want it. Over and over. As often as you’ll let me.”

“Scott.” But that was all she said as he slid deep a moment later.

They both groaned. Nothing had ever been this good, or this right, and after they’d both come apart in each other’s arms, he carried her, and the bottle of syrup, to the bedroom, and they did it all over again, getting his sheets as sticky as she’d promised on that very first day.

Several hours later, Scott was aware of the mattress dipping and the sheet shifting as Peyton got out of bed. But he kept his eyes shut. She was leaving. He’d known she would. He was heading to Omaha tomorrow and then to Cedar Downs. Having her in his bed, or his kitchen—and God help him if she had a spatula in hand—would have made it nearly impossible to leave.

But before she left, he felt her lips on his. And she kissed him like she wasn’t going to see him for a long time. And like she was just maybe going to miss him terribly while he was gone.